Since colonization, Indigenous women in Chiapas have occupied very disadvantaged social positions, characterized by ethnic, gender and class-based oppression. However, during the last thirty five years, important social dynamics have taken place which have driven women to perceive themselves as the main actors of social transformation, and to start participating in planning and development efforts at a household and community level. Building on the ideas of Paulo Freire and Pierre Bourdieu, oppression is understood as a dynamic where the oppressed are also implicated by, among other things, the involuntary body adhesion to oppression, experienced as shame, fear and silence. Therefore, the main focus of this research is the processes by which women achieved to exercise the internal capability to speak out; as well as how this new ability has been critical in order to have transformative agency, by having a meaningful participation in planning, agency and decision-making in the different spheres of their private and public life. The main findings of this thesis arise from six month of field research. With a phenomenological and hermeneutic approach, seventeen Indigenous and ten non-Indigenous women participated through in-depth interviews and focus groups. Participatory observation and a validation workshop were also undertaken. Findings are related, first, to women’s participation in group processes, by which, on the one hand, they achieved to generate critical-reflective awareness, denaturalizing oppression, and, on the other hand, they removed embodied oppressive dispositions by retraining their bodies through dialogue and corporal techniques. Second, praxis of liberation aroused from reflection, with no need of a mechanistic plan informed by efficient and effective predetermined justifications. Praxis of liberation took the form of practical wisdom and wise judgment for the achievement of good life.

Since colonization, Indigenous women in Chiapas have occupied very disadvantaged social positions, characterized by ethnic, gender and class-based oppression. However, during the last thirty five years, important social dynamics have taken place which have driven women to perceive themselves as the main actors of social transformation, and to start participating in planning and development efforts at a household and community level. Building on the ideas of Paulo Freire and Pierre Bourdieu, oppression is understood as a dynamic where the oppressed are also implicated by, among other things, the involuntary body adhesion to oppression, experienced as shame, fear and silence. Therefore, the main focus of this research is the processes by which women achieved to exercise the internal capability to speak out; as well as how this new ability has been critical in order to have transformative agency, by having a meaningful participation in planning, agency and decision-making in the different spheres of their private and public life. The main findings of this thesis arise from six month of field research. With a phenomenological and hermeneutic approach, seventeen Indigenous and ten non-Indigenous women participated through in-depth interviews and focus groups. Participatory observation and a validation workshop were also undertaken. Findings are related, first, to women’s participation in group processes, by which, on the one hand, they achieved to generate critical-reflective awareness, denaturalizing oppression, and, on the other hand, they removed embodied oppressive dispositions by retraining their bodies through dialogue and corporal techniques. Second, praxis of liberation aroused from reflection, with no need of a mechanistic plan informed by efficient and effective predetermined justifications. Praxis of liberation took the form of practical wisdom and wise judgment for the achievement of good life.

Since colonization, Indigenous women in Chiapas have occupied very disadvantaged social positions, characterized by ethnic, gender and class-based oppression. However, during the last thirty five years, important social dynamics have taken place which have driven women to perceive themselves as the main actors of social transformation, and to start participating in planning and development efforts at a household and community level. Building on the ideas of Paulo Freire and Pierre Bourdieu, oppression is understood as a dynamic where the oppressed are also implicated by, among other things, the involuntary body adhesion to oppression, experienced as shame, fear and silence. Therefore, the main focus of this research is the processes by which women achieved to exercise the internal capability to speak out; as well as how this new ability has been critical in order to have transformative agency, by having a meaningful participation in planning, agency and decision-making in the different spheres of their private and public life. The main findings of this thesis arise from six month of field research. With a phenomenological and hermeneutic approach, seventeen Indigenous and ten non-Indigenous women participated through in-depth interviews and focus groups. Participatory observation and a validation workshop were also undertaken. Findings are related, first, to women’s participation in group processes, by which, on the one hand, they achieved to generate critical-reflective awareness, denaturalizing oppression, and, on the other hand, they removed embodied oppressive dispositions by retraining their bodies through dialogue and corporal techniques. Second, praxis of liberation aroused from reflection, with no need of a mechanistic plan informed by efficient and effective predetermined justifications. Praxis of liberation took the form of practical wisdom and wise judgment for the achievement of good life. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

In 1992, Augusto Boal, founder of the globally influential repertoire of performance techniques known as Theatre of the Oppressed, was elected as a vereador, essentially the equivalent of city councilor in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Boal and his office staff used theatre as their primary method for collecting citizen input about legislation. His term lasted from 1993 to 1997, and his office shepherded thirteen bills to their successful passage as law. This dissertation examines three twenty-first century Legislative Theatre projects, all drawing on techniques from Boal’s initial Legislative Theatre project but staged in North America. The case studies include Practicing Democracy, a 2004 production by Headlines Theatre in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, a project that directly engaged the Vancouver City Council; a Legislative Theatre workshop facilitated by Augusto Boal and his son Julian Boal as part of the pre-conference of the annual Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Conference in Omaha, Nebraska, in May 2008, an event that culminated with a performance in the Omaha City Council Chambers; and The Eye & Tooth Project: Forum Theatre on the Death Penalty, a 2009 workshop and performance in Austin, TX, exploring how participants could practice lobbying skills through theatre. With these three theatre processes as examples, I explain how using Forum Theatre as the primary method for Legislative Theatre constructs citizenship as a process of collective knowledge-building. These projects stage citizenship as a collaborative act through which citizens gather to teach each other about their experiences with policy. Each production differently constructs performance as a “think tank” epistemology—an embodied way of building and transferring knowledge about legislation. I describe how Legislative Theatre think tanks dismantle traditional discourses of “detached” expertise by constructing citizens themselves as experts. In the process of making these larger arguments, this dissertation also addresses a variety of practical questions useful for future practitioners of Legislative Theatre: How was each project designed? What were its goals? How did the creators apply performance toward those goals? How and why did they forge connections (or not) with lawmaking bodies? For what communities might the projects have been more or less accessible? / text

Thesis advisor: Theresa A. O'Keefe / In this dissertation, I argue that Bible education is best understood as training students to improvise responsibly with Scripture. I explore this pedagogical model by reflecting on my experience as a Bible instructor at Cristo Rey New York High School, an inner city Catholic school. The goal of a Cristo Rey education is the integral liberation of students. In the language of liberation theology, to be "integrally liberated" is to survive and to thrive on all levels - material, cultural, psychosocial, and spiritual. Learning to improvise responsibly with Scripture helps students to grow in integral liberation. It helps them develop the capacity to perceive and to act with greater freedom, discernment, and commitment. It helps them to handle and interpret the Bible in ways that are creative, critical, and true. Here being true means more than being factually accurate; it means being true to the text, being true to the needs of one's interpreting community, and being true to the inner promptings of God's Holy Spirit. Responsible improvisation connects Biblical interpretation with artistry, with problem-solving, and with the construction of counter-cultural spaces. The dissertation supports a pedagogy for improvising responsibly with Scripture in several different ways. In the first chapter, I explain my proposal and the teaching experiences on which it is based. The first half of the chapter introduces the Cristo Rey setting within which I developed the Biblical pedagogy theorized and refined in this project. The second half begins to locate and unpack that pedagogy in terms of academic disciplines and relevant terms. I explain more concretely what I mean by "training students to improvise responsibly with Scripture." I also describe what I mean by "integral liberation," and by "interpretations that are creative, critical, and true." Chapter Two answers the question: "Why consider teaching a program of training?" I use the theory of Situated Learning to outline the religion classroom as a place of training, where students learn to master different interpretive practices in the midst of intersecting communities. I show how my model accurately reflects the teaching and learning dynamics of high school classrooms. A situated learning perspective helps educators identify specific areas where their interventions can help students become better, more responsible Scriptural improvisers. Chapter Three answers the question, "How can you train students for improvisation?" In this chapter, I correlate my educational model with the popular educational technique known as Theatre of the Oppressed (TO). TO brings together critical pedagogy and creative expression to help participants improvise artful and liberating social actions; it has proven both powerful and enduring in a broad range of class and cultural settings. I use TO as a generative metaphor to help teachers imagine more deeply and richly what training students for responsible improvisation might look like. Chapter Four steps back to take in a broader perspective. It answers the question, "Is this pedagogical model coherent? How does it all hang together?" In this chapter, I use the Pragmatist theology of Donald Gelpi, SJ as an overarching framework. I relate the concepts of "interpretation," "creativity," "responsibility," and "norms" with each other, and with a theology of God's Holy Spirit. Using Gelpi's semiotic realism as a conceptual framework shows how my pedagogy is not only conceptually coherent, but also convincingly rooted in the Christian intellectual tradition. Chapter Five presents a detailed example of teaching the Bible for responsible improvisation. It outlines the process of preparing and teaching a chapter from the Gospel of Matthew - specifically, Mt 13, the "Parables Discourse." This chapter argues that a warrant for improvising responsibly with Scripture can be derived from the Gospel itself. In short, I argue that "training students to improvise responsibly with Scripture" is a justice-grounded, empirically accurate, pedagogically compelling, intellectually coherent, and eminently Christian approach to teaching the Bible in Catholic schools. I conclude by discussing the implications of such a model in the context of Catholic educational ministry and ministerial training. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry.

Nosso objetivo neste trabalho é acompanhar os rumos percorridos pela violência no discurso das personagens de Plínio Marcos, em Homens de papel. Neste sentido, procuramos defender a tese de que a violência segue rumos diversificados na ação do opressor e na ação do oprimido. Para comprovarmos nosso intento, recorremos ao apoio teórico da Análise da Conversação Etnometodológica, da Sociolinguística Interacional e da Análise do Discurso. Nesta linha de pensamento, elaboramos a análise da linguagem das personagens, levando em consideração o contexto interacional, valorizando elementos lingüísticos e extralinguísticos importantes para a produção de efeitos de sentido. Entre esses elementos, incluem-se fatores relacionados com a identidade social, com a situação enunciativa e com o estado interior que contribuem para a instalação da violência no discurso. Partimos da hipótese de que a ação violenta do opressor é calculada e medida, enquanto a ação do oprimido é impulsiva e precipitada. Seguindo essa direção, tentamos mostrar como a intenção no uso da linguagem representa fator decisivo na construção de efeitos de sentido. Na voz do opressor, a intenção de dominar se manifesta por meio de estratégias e referências que, além de intimidar e aterrorizar os catadores, têm como objetivo alimentar um esquema de simulação. Na ação do oprimido, os insultos e as ofensas, imersos em clima de total descontrole, representam um meio de extravasar sentimentos e emoções desequilibradas que se acumulam e explodem com o apelo à brutalidade em um ato de linchamento. Tudo isso se manifesta na expressividade da linguagem que dá vida ao texto, graças à habilidade do autor em construir diálogos espontâneos, bem próximos da naturalidade da vida real. / Our purpose in this work is to follow the paths covered by violence in the speech of Plínio Marcos characters, in Paper Men. In this sense we defend the thesis that, violence follows a different way in the action of the oppressor and in the action of the oppressed.. To prove our intent, we rely on the theoretical support of the Ethno Methodological Conversation Analysis, Interactional Sociolinguistics and Speech Analysis. Having this in mind, we designed the analysis of the characters language, taking into account the interaction context, increasing the value of linguistics and extra linguistics facts that are important for the production of sense effects. Among these facts, there are factors related to social identity and to internal conditions which contribute to the onset of violence in the speech. We start from the assumption that the violent action of the oppressor is calculated and measured whereas the action of the oppressed is impulsive and hasty. In this way, we try to show how the intention represents a decisive factor in producing sense effects within the language usage. In the voice of the oppressor, the intention of dominating is shown by means of strategies and references whose objective is to feed the simulation scheme, besides embarrassing and terrifying the pickers. In the action of the oppressed, immersed in a complete breakdown, the insults and offenses represent a way of expressing feelings and unbalanced emotions that pile up and explode with a call for a brutal act and lynching. All that is expressed through the language that gives life to the text, thanks to the authors ability in building up spontaneous dialogues that are very close to the real life.

Nosso objetivo neste trabalho é acompanhar os rumos percorridos pela violência no discurso das personagens de Plínio Marcos, em Homens de papel. Neste sentido, procuramos defender a tese de que a violência segue rumos diversificados na ação do opressor e na ação do oprimido. Para comprovarmos nosso intento, recorremos ao apoio teórico da Análise da Conversação Etnometodológica, da Sociolinguística Interacional e da Análise do Discurso. Nesta linha de pensamento, elaboramos a análise da linguagem das personagens, levando em consideração o contexto interacional, valorizando elementos lingüísticos e extralinguísticos importantes para a produção de efeitos de sentido. Entre esses elementos, incluem-se fatores relacionados com a identidade social, com a situação enunciativa e com o estado interior que contribuem para a instalação da violência no discurso. Partimos da hipótese de que a ação violenta do opressor é calculada e medida, enquanto a ação do oprimido é impulsiva e precipitada. Seguindo essa direção, tentamos mostrar como a intenção no uso da linguagem representa fator decisivo na construção de efeitos de sentido. Na voz do opressor, a intenção de dominar se manifesta por meio de estratégias e referências que, além de intimidar e aterrorizar os catadores, têm como objetivo alimentar um esquema de simulação. Na ação do oprimido, os insultos e as ofensas, imersos em clima de total descontrole, representam um meio de extravasar sentimentos e emoções desequilibradas que se acumulam e explodem com o apelo à brutalidade em um ato de linchamento. Tudo isso se manifesta na expressividade da linguagem que dá vida ao texto, graças à habilidade do autor em construir diálogos espontâneos, bem próximos da naturalidade da vida real. / Our purpose in this work is to follow the paths covered by violence in the speech of Plínio Marcos characters, in Paper Men. In this sense we defend the thesis that, violence follows a different way in the action of the oppressor and in the action of the oppressed.. To prove our intent, we rely on the theoretical support of the Ethno Methodological Conversation Analysis, Interactional Sociolinguistics and Speech Analysis. Having this in mind, we designed the analysis of the characters language, taking into account the interaction context, increasing the value of linguistics and extra linguistics facts that are important for the production of sense effects. Among these facts, there are factors related to social identity and to internal conditions which contribute to the onset of violence in the speech. We start from the assumption that the violent action of the oppressor is calculated and measured whereas the action of the oppressed is impulsive and hasty. In this way, we try to show how the intention represents a decisive factor in producing sense effects within the language usage. In the voice of the oppressor, the intention of dominating is shown by means of strategies and references whose objective is to feed the simulation scheme, besides embarrassing and terrifying the pickers. In the action of the oppressed, immersed in a complete breakdown, the insults and offenses represent a way of expressing feelings and unbalanced emotions that pile up and explode with a call for a brutal act and lynching. All that is expressed through the language that gives life to the text, thanks to the authors ability in building up spontaneous dialogues that are very close to the real life.

Emmanuel Levinas¡¦s theory on the Other gives rise to a number of researches in the field of philosophy, and it is applied to the field of literature. Taking Levinas¡¦s theory on the Other as a frame, from the perspective of phenomenology, I try to discuss the theme of conflict in the three plays by the three eighteenth-century female playwrights¡X Mary Delarivier Manley¡¦s Lucius (1717), Eliza Haywood¡¦s Fair Captive (1721), and Elizabeth Inchbald¡¦s Such Things Are (1787). This study focuses not only on the tension between the oppressor and the oppressed, but also on the situation and reaction of the oppressed, especially on the situation and reaction of the conquered women while they confront the persecution. Chapter One is background introduction, which includes twentieth-century theories on the Other, and Levinas¡¦s theory on the Other. Theories of the Other are related to the fields of philosophy, anthropology, psychoanalysis, and post-colonialism; however, the focus of this dissertation is Levinas¡¦s theory on the Other. Levinas asserts the rivalry between the Self and the Other from a phenomenologist point of view. With Levinas as a major approach, this chapter discusses the rival phenomenon between the Self and the Other as represented in the three female playwrights¡¦ dramas. Chapter Two deals with a discussion on the Other in Manley¡¦s Lucius, or the First Christian King of Britain. This discussion is concerned with the confrontation between the conqueror, the Britons and the conquered, the Picts during Roman Britain. The reaction of the conquered, as well as the shifting identity of the conquered caused by the changed circumstances are also my main concern. Chapter Three is concerned with an analysis of the Other in Haywood¡¦s Fair Captive. I analyze the Self¡¦s violence against the Other, the Turks¡¦ persecution against the Spaniards, which results from racial and religious differences as exposed during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14). One of the ideas I focus on is men¡¦s oppression against women, either in the Islamic or in the Christian world, due to gender relations involved with a male maltreatment of women which is rooted in the patriarchal system and commonly exists in eighteenth-century Europe. Chapter Four studies the discourse on the Other in Inchbald¡¦s Such Things Are. I discuss the Orientalist perspective of Inchbald regarding the Sumatrans, the tension between the Self and the Other as represented in the interaction of the Britons and the Sumatrans, along with the tension between the master and the slave on the colonial level, as well as on the patriarchal level, as exercised in colonial society. The final chapter concludes this dissertation with an emphasis on the relationship between the Self and the Other. The Eighteenth-century England encountered a variety of political and cultural problems. Within the country, England had ethnic problems, though she had accomplished the Union with Scotland in 1707. Outside the country, England was forced to face her political Other, France, though the English appreciated and imitated French culture. Her two parties¡X the Tories and the Whigs, who maintained contradictory opinions in dealing with political issues¡X also caused instability in the political arena. Meanwhile, the political tension never mitigated when England endeavored to expand her territory into other countries, especially into India in order to implement her colonialism. Cultural differences result in either reciprocal or rival relationship between two peoples. In their rivalry, the Self has a desire for or a fear of the Other. Such a cultural phenomenon--the Self¡¦s desire for or fear of the Other-- is presented in the plays of many eighteenth-century female playwrights. This dissertation argues that when the Self alters his center-orientation and terminates seeking mastery over the Other, it is possible to put an end to their rivalry, just as Levinas indicates: Unless we attribute to the essence of free will a propensity for the rational, and, thus, a respect for universal, thanks to which the imperative and the normative of the intelligible would impose themselves on the free will of reach, consenting to limit itself in such a way as not to limit others. (Alterity and Transcendence 147-48) Manley¡¦s Lucius, Haywood¡¦s Fair Captive, and Inchbald¡¦s Such Things Are all illustrate this siltuation.

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